Impero Contracting:
This Name’s Got History

Building a Reputation in the Competitive,
Local Industrial-construction Field

by Michael Barrett

The very name “Impero” — as in Impero Contracting Co.— suggests regal, domineering, imperial strength or power. In the local construction industry, where the 29-year-old Bellingham company has truly made a name for itself, it might be said Impero excels in certain areas, even though the appellation is a family name, centered in the peaceful olive groves of rural Italy.

“The company was started in 1972 by Mike (Impero) Sr.,” says David Huber, president and general manager. “He’d originally worked for another construction company and decided to strike out on his own. In those days, there were companies like Columbia Cement, Intalco and Mobil Oil, which later became Tosco. At first, it was just Mike and his wife, Susie; then, four years later, they moved to Bakerview (Road) and hired one more employee (Verjean Golden).

“I went to work for him in 1977,” Huber continues. “The company’s volume then was fairly conservative — $8 million to $10 million a year — and now it’s $25 million to $28 million.”

It’s grown in size, too; today, it employs from 70 to 150 persons, depending on the season.

“We’re one of the most diversified contractors in the area,” says the founder’s son, Mike Impero Jr., who is vice president of the company. “We construct bridges, fish hatcheries, sewage-treatment plants, schools, hospitals, parking garages, office facilities and metal buildings — most of it right here in this area.”

“It’s geography,” Huber explains. “Canada isn’t far away, and to the west is water and to the east mountains. We may go to Central Washington, the Olympic Peninsula or even the Seattle market once in a while, but we’re pretty much confined here.”

Some of Impero’s best-known projects of late include the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, the Bellingham Police Station, Eagle Ridge Elementary School in Ferndale, Barkley Buildings 2 and 3 and Barkely Medical Center, as well as the Cancer Treatment and Child Birth Center at St. Joseph Hospital, Science Building 3 at Western Washington University and three structures for Alpha Technolo-gies, Inc.

 

Transfer of power

Mike Sr. is semiretired but comes into the office often, when he’s not traveling, raising beef on his 50-acre farm or renovating old cars. It was his grandfather who immigrated from Italy.

“My parents come in a couple of days a week,” Mike Jr. states. “After being in this business now for a number of years, I greatly admire what they have done with the company. They never sit around; they’re always doing something.”

“We had a big change in June 1999,” Huber recalls. “We went from being Impero Construction to Impero Contracting. The change came when Mike Sr. decided to step back and get into semiretirement and I got the chance then to have some ownership. We needed a new name, but we wanted to keep it Impero. Our personal focus has remained intact.”

Huber began life in Spokane but was reared in Vancouver, Wash. He enrolled in WWU in 1967 and found a job at Wilder Construction Co. to help him get by. That lasted 10 years. Mike Sr. hired him as an estimator, but he’s served as a project manager for 20 of the past 24 years. He became vice president in 1999 and president last June.

“I’m in charge of day-to-day operations for the company and try to expand the markets with private-sector clients,” he states. “They still call me.”

He and wife Sheila, who works for Bellingham Travel & Cruise, have two adult children.

Mike Jr., a graduate of Bellingham High School in 1980 and Central Washington University a few years later with a construction-management degree, literally grew up in the business.

“I started here sweeping buildings and went to job sites when I was younger,” he recalls. “I worked on a fish-hatchery project for eight months, and at one point, I wanted to become an equipment operator. I was going to Western then. Dad talked to me and said I should continue in school. I did, eventually going to Central where some of the teachers were from the industry, and I learned to like it. After graduation, I started out estimating and then became a project manager. My first job was a $13,000 project — not a large job, but it seemed huge at the time.”

Mike and his wife, Kelly, have three children, ages 10, 7 and 5.

Others on the staff include: project managers Albert Timmer, Lisa Mulka, Ben Coon and Jerry Pruiett, who runs the separate office with about 15 Impero employees at Intalco; support personnel Kathy Thompson, Pat Frambach (Mike Jr.’s brother-in-law) and Barbara Gran; and Kelli Lootens, the new kid on the block, who replaced Verjean Golden, the longtime bookkeeper, only two years ago.

 

Changing emphasis

Impero Contracting Co. today is located in the Midway Business Center, a handsome, two-building, concrete tilt-up complex it built in the Irongate area at 1971 Midway Lane.

Many of Impero’s outstanding credentials have been in the public sector, but Huber says that emphasis is changing.

“We’ve been attempting to shift a majority of our work from the public sector to the negotiable private sector,” he remarks. “Last year, this was about 70 percent on the public side. Now it’s maybe 50-50.

“With private work, it’s more of a partnering process, with the client, architect, subcontractor and ourselves. Barkley Village has been like that. It also helps us budget and adds value engineering,” he continues. “We can meet with them and be ready to go and not have to wait for the bidding to get over with. It’s a good approach that’s worked for us.”

Huber, who also serves as vice president of the Associated General Contractors’ North District office in Bellingham and has been a member of AGC’s state and education foundation boards, says the firm is capable of “self-performing certain elements of our work.”

He explains: “We try to do as much as possible in-house. We use union craft people in the field. We have project managers and estimators, who might be the same person, along with the clerical staff. Our emphasis is on safety. AGC, through its education and safety programs, has helped us considerably in this regard. It’s important to us and important to the subcontractors.”

Indeed, Mike Sr. once served as AGC president, following a stint as vice president of the northern district.

“It’s a five-year commitment,” Huber explains about why he’s content not running for the higher state office. “I enjoy working with AGC and on committees; it’s a way of giving back to the industry. But looking after the business is number-one.”

For his years of commitment and volunteerism, Huber last January was accorded the state AGC’s Contractor of the Year Award.

“We take pride in what we do and hope we can provide a good influence in the local industry, where we are considered a leader,” Huber says.

“Our goal at Impero is to be a leader in the construction industry,” Mike Jr. adds.